A lovely 78 year old gentleman who is my patient came to the office. He has had numerous cardiac conditions and despite repeated testing and reassurance that his heart is doing well, he still deals with a lot of anxiety and pressured speech with tangential conversations, all reflections of his chattery mind’s chaos. He started off the dialogue as was his habit.

 

“ Doc Thanks for teaching me those breathing techniques the last time I was here. Because of those, I have learned not to internalize my issues and started to letting things go. “

 

I quickly reminded myself of what we had discussed during the last visit especially what advices I had passed on.”

 

“ Ah yes breath-work to keep you centered.” I recalled out loud.

 

“ They really helped. I got myself in balance every time I started to get anxious I did your candle flame blowing maneuver. Once I was calmer I did the other inhalation and exhalation with pauses technique and boy was I chilled out like a cucumber.”

 

“ Did it have any longer effects beyond those times when you were having an anxiety attack?”

 

“ Yes indeed. I practice the second one three times a day and each time 20 times, just like your prescription said, and I am overall feeling relaxed and not as agitated when people say things to me about politics or family stuff” he replied.

 

“ Great that is the whole purpose of doing it consistently, to keep you balanced enough to see the whole conversation and give you the time to respond and not react impulsively or defensively.”

 

“Yup it did the trick. Are you some kind of psychiatrist or something? “ he asked.

 

“ Something” I laughed.

 

We ended the visit after more discussions about his cardiac care plans and wished each other good tidings till the next visit.

 

I recommend breath work to all my patients. There are different types but I try to individualize the techniques depending on the patient’s abilities. A practiced breathing modality keeps the heart, the nervous system, the body and mind balanced. There is much healing that occurs and modern medicine seems to restricted to medications and procedures, having forgotten the subtle arts of the body’s intrinsic ability to heal itself with meditation, mind body medicine, and breath work ( taught by all the ancient cultures as part of their medical tool kits for over a 1000 years).

 

No matter what your medical condition, breath work plays a role. This is part of the body’s natural tool to heal itself.

 

Breathe, let go, be healed.

 

Inhale love, exhale gratitude.

 

………..

 

I love you